Italy's Prosciutto di Parma and Grana Padana have been included on a list of products which the European Union has given China for official certification.
China, in turn, has given the EU a list of products it wants protected from counterfeit substitutes.
The lists were exchanged during a meeting here between Aldo Longo, director of the European Commission's department of agriculture, and Tian Zhuang, the deputy director of the Chinese office for quality control, food inspection and quarantine.
During their meeting, Longo recalled how Europe's protected geographical indication (PGI) recognition system has been "an important tool to promote development in rural areas and, at the same time, has represented a guarantee for consumers of a product's quality".
